JOGLE PT 4 What to take ?

The die is cast. We leave in a few days for JOGLE (see the 3 previous JOGLE blogs to make sense of this one).

I am in the packing mode! It is not straightforward. All advice I have read recommends you should travel light. This is obvious because more weight means more physical effort required to move said weight!

However this is simple to say - but hard to achieve!

Here are some constraints and considerations :

• We will expecting to be away for 3 weeks.
• We are camping and have no back up.
• Mike and I have agreed to each be fully self contained - no gear sharing unless in an emergency. This is not a selfish decision - just entirely practical.
• Because of covid we expect to be wild camping in majority.
• Certainly for the first week we will very much be off the beaten track and our route is designed to keep us away from busy areas as much as possible for the whole 1200 miles.
• We will be cooking our own food in the main so sourcing concerns. What to carry as back up? We need to do 50 + miles everyday for 3 weeks on some challenging terrain. Keeping fit and well makes nutrition and calorie replacement a big factor. Food that just needs hydrating is the obvious solution but there is nothing so satisfying as a tasty dinner at the end of a long physical day!
• We will have to source our own water (I have a Sawyer) and carry our fuel for cooking (I have an ultra lightweight titanium stove fuelled by meths).
• The weather could literally be anything especially in the far north of Scotland. Keeping dry is a big challenge. Clothes changes? Wet weather gear? I have bought a Carradice cape.
• Personal hygiene. Covid adds an extra factor. Even if we find paying campsites many have specified no shower facilities and much of our time will be wild camping - so no showers. When I sailed across the N Pacific it was a month with virtually no clothes changes and no showers (as most yacht racing or trekking lol! ) - just wet wipes - but it was freezing cold the whole time. JOGLE will be different. There will be a lot of perspiration! I have lightweight gear - but changes to take? Washing and drying clothes will be difficult. 
• On perspiration. A guaranteed way of getting a chill is sitting around in damp clothes. Gortex helps but no clothes I have ever worn wicks everything away! 
• We only plan to cycle in daylight. There will therefore be a lot of time spent in our tents. Obviously a one man tent is the lightest but my experience is they are too small to be able to function in with pannier bags and cooking. I am therefore taking a two man tent because I think the value of the extra space offsets the burden of the extra weight.
• How do we keep phones and GPS etc charged ? I do not have a dynamo on my bike. I have opted for an Anker solar panel. 
• Everything we need will be carried in our pannier bags and packing in order of required access is a challenge.
• We will also want an early start each morning regardless of weather so handling and packing a damp/wet tent is a challenge especially as the need is to keep everything else dry.
• Finally the obvious one - what bike? I have a Dawes Super Galaxy touring bike that I bought second hand recently. It seems in good order. I have fitted Schwalbe Marathon tyres as everything I have read indicates they are the best chance of avoiding punctures. Repair and maintenance of the bike on route adds to the gear list required to be carried as we will be very remote at times.

This is not a comprehensive list but gives an idea of some of the considerations I am making.

Food and clothes are the two biggest weights. I think I have to reduce what I am proposing to carry but I do so reluctantly.

My final note on this blog. I love the prospect of this challenge - lol !!!

PS FURTHER UPDATE

After a trial run with loaded panniers it is obvious I am overloaded - weight and bulk needs to be further reduced. The main reduction will come in the provision of back up gear (clothes etc) - while it would be good to have it all as a contingency but it amounts to too much. At the end of the day there will need to be more improvisation and probably discomfort if there will be any chance of getting up and down those hills over 1200 miles!